Current debates around polarisation and political discontent are often connected to patterns of spatial injustice. The thesis examines how rural residents in Llanidloes, Wales and Åsele, Sweden negotiate the polarising political climate of post-2016, austerity and urban norm in relation to their identities, backgrounds, sense of belonging and conceptions of justice. The analysis is based on a multi-method qualitative study including ethnography, photo diaries, semi-structured interviews and a focus group. The study contributes to existing research in four principal ways. The loose comparison between Welsh and Swedish ruralities allow for conceptual developments in relation to the similarities between the concept of urban norm and that of spatial justice when applied to rural-urban inequalities. The thesis also identifies how certain individuals within rural communities hold more power to decide on who is included and not due to combinations of conceptions of rurality and local identity. In both cases, there were cultures of whiteness where exclusion of black and ethnic minorities from imaginations of rural ideas was commonplace. Furthermore, the qualitative interpretation of political engagement uncovered how outcomes and disappointments at various scales contribute simultaneously to individual’s perspectives on politics. In both case studies, there were frequent references to the local communities as getting along, connected to depoliticization of key issues. In the UK this ties in with conservative discourses of the apolitical countryside, and in Sweden this was related to the sense of powerlessness in relation to regional and national political scales. Finally, the thesis explores how people understand the future through the everyday, finding service closure and an existential threat to the survival of these places to be key drivers of action for local people.
- spatial justice
- rural community
- qualitative comparison
- rural governance
- rural futures
- depoliticisation
Rural spatial justice: the impact of urban norms on rural community dynamics, sense of power and future visions - an analysis of two case studies in Wales and Northern Sweden
Hjort, E. (Author). 2024
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy